Reviews with content warning for Violence - A Promise of Fire

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet

20 reviews

madeleinehelena's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Interesting characters and world-building. I want to know how everything will play out.

The tempo dragged towards the end. Also, some repition of certain elements. There was talk of urgent actions needed, but it felt like the author was building up for the next book.

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hedgew1tch's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

”He abducted me. He threatened my friends. He kept me tied to him with a magic rope. I couldn’t even pee by myself. He’s awful.” “You’ll get over it.” Jocasta cheerfully throws my own words back at me. “See you at dinner.”

No, just no.

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kaeschwalber's review

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She wore leather pants for several days riding a horse in the heat and minimal showering? Without getting a yeast infection? I assure you she did not. I liked the world and secondary characters, so I overlooked the plot and 'most perfect and most powerful but somehow can't stop getting caught' plot hole. But with each passing chapter the MMC's red flags waved faster and faster - until finally I looked up the plot for the whole series. Does she leave his jealous angry controlling crazy ass?

No! Does she eventually marry and get knocked up?

Well I DNF for a good reason. Also, shockingly, no one else seems to be talking about how insane and scary he is as a partner? Like Redit really didn't have much to say - wtf?

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louisallama's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

The book started out fairly strong, and I enjoyed the banter between Cat and Griffin and all the side characters were fun, but that's about it.
Cat is in a constant cycle of 'I feel so drawn to Griffin but I can't trust or love him because of my mysterious (and horrifically obvious) past, but oops I'm telling him things I swore I'd never tell anyone and now I'm kissing him back and then hitting him immediately after'. Seriously, she goes back and forth every other page, it's infuriating, and she's not portrayed as mature or serious enough to pull it off well.
Griffin ends up being pretty abusive towards Cat imo. He never lets her make her own decisions, never trusts her word, is insanely jealous and possessive of her, and there ends up being a lot of dubious consent in the latter half of the book.
Also *spoilers for the ending*

isn't Cat supposed to have magical self healing powers? How come that never comes up at the end of the book when she's stabbed in the gut by Daphne and is bleeding to death? Unless I'm blind, there's not even a throwaway line to hand-wave it away because she's ~too weak~ from using her powers all night. She can get in the way of dragon fire and the arrow that fried her to a crisp and put her arms in a ball of flames and be absolutely dandy, but she can't self heal enough from a knife to the gut to go get help? Correct me if I'm wrong because that's the biggest dumb as shit plot hole.

The plot wasn't strong enough to make up for these overwhelming character flaws, and while the writing was decent, I'm not surprised that this is a debut novel.

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reading_srsly's review against another edition

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adventurous

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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mimi30's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I had hoped for a little more from this book. It has all the necessary things for a great adventure/ fantasy book but some things fell short or hindered it. The romance was one aspect. Griffin doesn't know what the word no means. Cat's lust for Griffin doesn't make sense to me with the amount of hate she has after the kidnapping. So their relationship, to me, needed more buildup? And more character development.
I'm going to read the next one purely for Cat's secrets and to find out more about the gods. Hopefully the romance is better than the 1st book.

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annabelle's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated

3.0

This was a fun read with an interesting world. Unfortunately, the relationship development was a bit clunky to me and I didn’t love the writing style.

Also, I don’t think there was enough plot payoff at the end of this book… the book just kinda ended without any big reveals or conclusions. I enjoyed it enough to continue the series and I’m interested to see what happens next but I definitely didn’t love this.

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cavefly's review

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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vagrantheather's review against another edition

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Finally DNFing this book at 78%, much past when it was due. It's a fun, light read for the most part, but the conceptualization is terribly poor. I'd place the writing at ACOTAR level (pretty bad IMO, but readable). My biggest gripe is, of course, the abduction and subsequent sexualization of a captive. Yes, the male MC is kind, hot, strong, and generous - but the main character is still a captive! She was taken against her will, physically bound to him with magical rope, and repeatedly denied release despite constant petition. We see from the perspective of the victim, so there's this thin veneer of acceptability; we know how she feels about Griffin, that she is attracted to him and wants him around. But she REPEATEDLY rejects his advances, and he REPEATEDLY breaks those boundaries. Then ALL OF THE SURROUNDING CHARACTERS pressure her to give in and let him have his way with her. In fact, she outright tells one sister that he abducted, threatened, and kept her captive, and the sister says, "you'll get over it." !!! From any other perspective, his advances are grossly unfounded sexual harassment on a trafficking victim / slave. I cannot move past this. It does not get better over time. Griffin constantly makes demands on the FMC that restrict her agency - magical vows that cause her untold physical pain when they are broken. He sees this, it scares him, and he CONTINUES TO ASK HER TO MAKE THESE VOWS. He acts like he's going to kiss her, she tells him not to, and he says "why shouldn't I?" then does it anyway. Hello, the WHY is BECAUSE SHE F*CKING TOLD YOU NOT TO. I honestly have to question the author's ethics, that she would write such a toxic dynamic as a young adult romance. It's way more disturbing than Twilight, where Bella could at least walk away.

More minor gripes - it's written like fanfiction, in the sense that a lot of phrasing makes no sense for the world. It uses Greek deities (despite being a different world/universe), but very poorly researched. The author makes numerous references to the Underworld being hot (it is not hot in Greek mythology). Characters use Brit-ified curses ("it's too bloody hot," "hasn't let me out of his sight for a bloody month," "I'm not a bloody dog," etc). The supposedly wise, empathetic, beloved new Alpha has no personality outside of eye movements - her eyes widen with surprise, that's about it. Hyperbole is not enough, so the author tacks hyperbole onto more hyperbole to try to give things impact - it's not "I'd rather die than do x," it's "I'd rather die a thousand painful deaths than do x." It can't be "I freeze," but "I go impossibly still." It's lazy writing. Dynamics with other characters are shallow and trite. Griffin's previous bed buddy, who takes an instant dislike to Cat and slutshames her, tries to attack her, and publicly cries to Griffin about how Cat's not as good as she is, to which Griffin does the corny, "but I looooove her." Very lame. Very "pick me" girl. There are comments about her getting dirty looks from all of the other women in the city because she associates with the good looking Beta team, and I am disgusted by this characterization of the majority of women as petty, shallow, and jealous of each other.

Characters do not move like people. Anyone outside the main duo acts as a hive mind, all hovering around with no motivation until it's time for them to play a role in a scene (a side comment, all moving to attack at once, overhearing a conversation they're "part of" (but not really)). Griffin walks through a city towing someone with a rope and no one intervenes or looks twice, because apparently everyone in the city thinks this is an ok, normal thing to do? The plotting is lazy, too - Cat is a runaway from a household full of abuse (mental, physical, emotional) who lives life as a transient, yet she's simultaneously intimately familiar with court etiquette and manipulation/strategy. She never has to wonder what people will do, because she's capable of instantly profiling their motives and flaws and setting forth exactly the right plan. She has unlimited powers, her flaws are only things that make people love her, and she's got like three or more gods (real characters who have physical forms in this book) ready to jump in and give her extra powers at any moment.

I like my characters to feel like real, complex people. I like the world to be ambiguous, difficult to judge. I like when carefully laid plans go awry because that's just how the world is, one little misstep and the plan careens off the rails. This book is the opposite of that. Characters are predictable and everyone is beautiful and powerful and righteous. It's OK to murder 60 people in one page, because they were "the bad guys," and no one has to struggle with pesky little emotions over their deaths. In fact we never even need to question if they were evil, because obviously they must have been.

It is fun to read, if you can look past the bad writing, bad characters, predictable plot, and toxic dynamics. I couldn't.

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r1vana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Happiness is a strange, frightening, fragile feeling when you're not used to it.

This series may become one of my favourite fantasy romance I’ve read so far. I’ve had this on my kindle for a while and decided to give it a try.

This story has a mix of romance, action and magic. I enjoyed every moment!

This story is from Cat’s pov, our strong, fierce, sarcastic heroine.

She is part of a circus, with people who she consider family. Something she never knew what it was due to growing up in an abusing household aka F-up mother…

We get to see how feisty she becomes when she meets the Ml, Griffin and his three right hands. Like Cat legit says ew after G kisses her internally knowing that was the best kiss she ever had.

Griffin has been on a journey to find the Kingmaker for his kingdom’s protection and future. So, when he sees Cat with her thousand pound makeup, he knew that she was the one. So, he kidnaps her and brings her to his home. Over half of the book, it’s all about their journey to his home. And also, we get to see the sexual tension between G and C.

And it is piping hot.

I love how the author uses of mythology and the Gods with her own touches. I love how we get to see from Cat’s pov on how power and hierarchy is used and how strict and F-up it can be and should be. Which makes the world building more interesting.

The way she interpreted in her story was not confusing.

Beside the world building, the characters were definitely the highlights.

cat is a strong women who has never known kindness until her circus family and G and his friends and family. We see how she is pushing G back because she knows that the more she is with him, the more he will be in danger: “This is madness. How can madness feel so good?" . Again her potty mouth and sarcastic persona is hilarious: “Have I cheated death again? Hades must be allergic to me.”
Griffin I was sceptical of him at first. He sometimes sounded like a douche. But he definitely grew on me. I love how he is verbally and physically protective over Cat. That girl needs it for all the years… and he has ways with words… honestly…: "You're bright like a star. You shine for me now, but the sky turns. Where will you shine tomorrow? Or the day after? I won't let you go, not without a fight that would make Gods tremble."
Carver, Flynn and Kato. Griffin’s close armoured friends/allies/ right hands… I love their dynamics with Cat and how protective they were especially Flynn and Kato, whenever Cat has nightmares and they are there to comfort when she didn’t ask them to.
When Cat met Griffin’s family, I was skeptical because I taught they were gonna be a-hole like any other books. But they were warm and welcoming to her and were also pushing her to accept Griffin’s feelings for her.

One of the funniest thing I’ve read is how “Griffin’s liquid warmth” healed her. The cringe I made when I read that line…. But o’well at first Cat knows how to heal herself…

—

What to expect for the next book maybe?:

her blood connections with her mother.( she needs to dilute her blood so her mother can’t track her)
How will Griffin will react to Cat’s actual identity
How or will Cat become more powerful?
What will happen within the kingdom

W: blood; violence; child abuse; animal cruelty/death; attempt of murder; owd that is tolerable; sexual content

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